‘THERE IS NO PLACE ‘FOR’ HOME’: PRESSING CHALLENGES VIS-A-VIS LEGAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COOPERATIVE HOUSING IN GREECE

Abstract

During the last decade, the intensification of housing issues has gone hand in hand with the revived interest in collaborative and cooperative housing. In fact, since 2010 projects have emerged in many European cities experimenting with alternative housing models based on collective ownership, decommodification of housing and democratic self-management. These efforts are often supported by specific institutional frameworks and public policies, as it is increasingly recognized that cooperatives can provide more equitable, inclusive, affordable, environmentally sustainable and democratic housing solutions.In Greece, cooperative housing has not been historically developed, despite the institutionalization of (civil) building cooperatives as early as in the 1920s. At the same time, an absence is noted of a social or non-profit rental housing model, as public housing policy has over time prioritized the production and promotion of owner-occupied housing (Siatitsa, 2019). Lacking previous experiences and institutional capacities makes it harder to envision and implement similar projects in Greece (Cohab, 2023; Siatitsa and Karagianni, 2022).Taking into account the above, this paper aims to contribute to the debate on housing cooperatives by exploring the legal dimension of housing cooperatives and their potential for development based on the current cooperative legal forms in Greece. The mainrationale is that housing cooperatives constitute a significant instrument within an overall housing policy mix able to confront commodification in the housing market and construct “non-state public” (Ferreri and Vidal, 2022) housing models for those willing to follow this option.